Dota 2

3 years agoThe International reaches $10 million prize pool
DarthBotto

In 2011, the electronic sports scene was stunned as Valve introduced the largest prize pot in the scene's history with The International tournament coinciding with the IEM 6 Global Challenge Gamescom 2011 at Gamescom. Never before had a squad crossed that seemingly impossible threshold of one million dollars, but with a single debut, Natus Vincere did it. In 2012, Valve Corporation continued their tradition with The International 2012, but had their throne stolen away by the slightly larger prize pool by the League of Legends Season 2 World Championship. The throne was retaken a year later, however, thanks to the efforts of crowdfunding via the interactive compendium, which enhanced the prize pool to $2,874,381. Today, The International made history by surpassing the $10,000,000 mark, therefore introducing the esports world to a new digit.

Aside from saying that esports is strong enough that it deals in eight digits, rather than seven, let us evaluate some statistics. Firstly, The International 2014 now has a prize pool exceeding that of the PGA Tour, which provides $9,000,000 in prize money. Secondly, the results of the interactive compendium sales showcases the compatibility of crowdfunding in the more popular esports titles, as the prize pool is more than three times that of last year's edition of The International. On a final note, the prize pool of The International 2014 is at arm's length of exceeding the combined prize pools of all the championships for Dota 2 and League of Legends.

At the time of the publishing of this article, the prize pool of The International is $10,015,586, leaving $208,795 before it surpasses the combined value of the aforementioned championships.

Do you think it can do it with nearly three weeks left? Tell us below!